187 research outputs found
Evaluation and improvement of the sustainability of organic farming : elements for debate
Synthetic overview of the second workshop : Evaluation and improvement of the sustainability of organic farming
Genus expansion for real Wishart matrices
We present an exact formula for moments and cumulants of several real
compound Wishart matrices in terms of an Euler characteristic expansion,
similar to the genus expansion for complex random matrices. We consider their
asymptotic values in the large matrix limit: as in a genus expansion, the terms
which survive in the large matrix limit are those with the greatest Euler
characteristic, that is, either spheres or collections of spheres. This
topological construction motivates an algebraic expression for the moments and
cumulants in terms of the symmetric group. We examine the combinatorial
properties distinguishing the leading order terms. By considering higher
cumulants, we give a central limit-type theorem for the asymptotic distribution
around the expected value
Units of relativistic time scales and associated quantities
This note suggests nomenclature for dealing with the units of various
astronomical quantities that are used with the relativistic time scales TT,
TDB, TCB and TCG. It is suggested to avoid wordings like "TDB units" and "TT
units" and avoid contrasting them to "SI units". The quantities intended for
use with TCG, TCB, TT or TDB should be called "TCG-compatible",
"TCB-compatible", "TT-compatible" or "TDB-compatible", respectively. The names
of the units second and meter for numerical values of all these quantities
should be used with out any adjectives. This suggestion comes from a special
discussion forum created within IAU Commission 52 "Relativity in Fundamental
Astronomy"
VLBI measurement of the secular aberration drift
While analyzing decades of very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) data, we
detected the secular aberration drift of the extragalatic radio source proper
motions caused by the rotation of the Solar System barycenter around the
Galactic center. Our results agree with the predicted estimate to be 4-6 micro
arcseconds per year ({\mu}as/yr) towards {\alpha} = 266\circ and {\delta} =
-29\circ. In addition, we tried to detect the quadrupole systematics of the
velocity field. The analysis method consisted of three steps. First, we
analyzed geodetic and astrometric VLBI data to produce radio source coordinate
time series. Second, we fitted proper motions of 555 sources with long
observational histories over the period 1990-2010 to their respective
coordinate time series. Finally, we fitted vector spherical harmonic components
of degrees 1 and 2 to the proper motion field. Within the error bars, the
magnitude and the direction of the dipole component agree with predictions. The
dipole vector has an amplitude of 6.4 \pm 1.5 {\mu}as/yr and is directed
towards equatorial coordinates {\alpha} = 263\circ and {\delta} = -20\circ. The
quadrupole component has not been detected. The primordial gravitational wave
density, integrated over a range of frequencies less than 10-9 Hz, has a limit
of 0.0042 h-2 where h is the normalized Hubble constant is H0/(100 km s-1)
Organic farming and climate change: major conclusions of the Clermont-Ferrand seminar (2008)
This seminar confirmed that less greenhouse gas (GHG) is emitted per unit area under organic agriculture than under conventional agriculture, and that our eating patterns have a strong impact on factors involved in climate change. Moreover, it shed new light on and contributed original information to a variety of fields. The two major advantages of organic farming in terms of the mitigation of GHG emissions are its ability to store carbon in the ground and the non-use of synthetic nitrogen fertilisers. Means for improving practices and research priorities were identified
A First Assessment of the Corrections for the Consistency of the IAU2000 and IAU2006 Precession-Nutation Models
The Earth precession-nutation model endorsed by resolutions of each the International Astronomical Union and the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics is composed of two theories developed independently, namely IAU2006 precession and IAU2000A nutation. The IAU2006 precession was adopted to supersede the precession part of the IAU 2000A precession-nutation model and tried to get the new precession theory dynamically consistent with the IAU2000A nutation. However, full consistency was not reached, and slight adjustments of the IAU2000A nutation amplitudes at the micro arcsecond level were required to ensure consistency. The first set of formulae for these corrections derived by Capitaine et al. (Astrophys 432(1):355â367, 2005), which was not included in IAU2006 but provided in some standards and software for computing nutations. Later, Escapa et al. showed that a few additional terms of the same order of magnitude have to be added to the 2005 expressions to get complete dynamical consistency between the official precession and nutation models. In 2018 Escapa and Capitaine made a joint review of the problem and proposed three alternative ways of nutation model and its parameters to achieve consistency to certain different extents, although no estimation of their respective effects could be worked out to illustrate the proposals. Here we present some preliminary results on the assessment of the effects of each of the three sets of corrections suggested by Escapa and Capitaine (Proceedings of the JournĂ©es, des SystĂ©mes de RĂ©fĂ©rence et de la Rotation Terrestre: Furthering our Knowledge of Earth Rotation, Alicante, 2018) by testing them in conjunction with the conventional celestial pole offsets given in the IERS EOP14C04 time series.The four first authors were partially supported by Spanish Project AYA2016-79775-P (AEI/FEDER, UE)
Fluctuations of Matrix Entries of Regular Functions of Wigner Matrices
We study the fluctuations of the matrix entries of regular functions of
Wigner random matrices in the limit when the matrix size goes to infinity. In
the case of the Gaussian ensembles (GOE and GUE) this problem was considered by
A.Lytova and L.Pastur in J. Stat. Phys., v.134, 147-159 (2009). Our results are
valid provided the off-diagonal matrix entries have finite fourth moment, the
diagonal matrix entries have finite second moment, and the test functions have
four continuous derivatives in a neighborhood of the support of the Wigner
semicircle law.Comment: minor corrections; the manuscript will appear in the Journal of
Statistical Physic
- âŠ